Friday, September 7, 2012

Let's Watch A Comparison Of A Webcomic And 'Ulysses'

Posted By on Fri, Sep 7, 2012 at 4:10 PM

The above video is PBS's Idea Channel, a YouTube show that combines internet memes, quick cuts, and thoughts about culture to make a short show that's somehow able to generate thoughtful conversation on YouTube, of all places.

In the past, the show's discussed such topics as "Super Mario Brothers Is The World's Greatest Piece Of Surrealist Art" and "Is Dubstep Avant Garde Musical Genius?"

This week's video leans a bit esoteric, as its subject is monumentally popular — within a certain, slightly-rabid internet subculture. The subject: Webcomic artist Andrew Hussie's "Homestuck," a three-year-old story that combines static images, chat logs, GIFs, lengthy animations and Flash-based games to tell a story that's 5,000 pages long — and not even finished yet. It's easy to get into, but gets denser and denser with every mass of updates.

So what does it have to do with James Joyce's "Ulysses"? My recommendation, if you haven't clicked "play" yet, is to watch the video and find out. It'll be six minutes well spent.

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